Airfix 1:72 HS Buccaneer S2B

[colin m]

It seems the Buccaneer was quite a popular aircraft, its low level ride was fairly smooth (unlike its successor the Tornado) indeed there was a belief that the only replacement for a Buccaneer, was, another Buccaneer !

XX895 was delivered to the RAF on the 12 May 1975 and in early January 1976 issued to 12 Sqn, RAF Honnington.

January 1991 saw XX895 prepared for deployment to the Gulf on operation Granby, which included being painted desert ARTF (Alkali Removable Temporary Finish) and the code ‘G’ applied.

17th March 1991 saw XX895 return to RAF Lossiemouth. This model will be built with this transit payload simply because I like the asymmetric look !

During ‘Granby’ XX895 was to take part in 10 missions, 3 were DNCO (Duty not carried out) one was down to weather, another was no in flight refuelling available and the final DNCO down to a U/S Tornado ! The Buccaneer was to prove so reliable that the two reserves left behind in the UK were never needed.

So, the build. Well I haven’t done much building recently as I’ve been busy decorating the house, but once in a while when there’s a lull in decorating I’ve done a bit on the Bucc’.

The Airfix 1:72 Buccaneer is an old mould lacking in detail. Hence the build started with the purchase of a cockpit PE set and scribing in some surface detail. The scribing was a bit of a nightmare. It was one step forward two back. But, just doing it bit by bit seemed the way forward. Anyway, on with the build.

I started with the scribing of various panel lines and access panels, lots of artistic license was used here. With so little detail, it was just crying out for some attention.

The intakes will need a lot of work.

As will the seams, well it is a very old mould !

The one and only Sidewinder is getting new fins, the kit ones were just too thick

The bang seat. The kit item has gained 11 pieces of PE each. What a pain !

The cockpit was quite straight forward, except I dropped the IP into the fuselage, but luckily, recovered it through the exhaust port !

And that's it for now. Time for a bit of preshading.

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[papa 695]

A very good start on this Colin. Got this in the stash so will watch with interest

 

[James Q]

Looking good, the bang seats look fantastic, but can imagine the PE was a bit on the fiddly side to do!

 

[andygh]

The Buck was a lovely looking aircraft, we often had them in the visiting aircraft support section

Watching with interest as I haven't done one of these since I were a lad

 

[Ian M]

That bang seat is a work of art! Nice.

The cock pit looks great as well.

Ian M

 

[dubster72]

That's coming along very well Colin, even with all the necessary alterations!

The Buccaneer is definitely a favourite of mine, even in the Gulf war they were still performing a vital low-level attack role, something the Americans couldn't handle. Mind you, their idea of low is over 500ft!

Patrick

 

[yak face]

Nice one colin! We all love a nice buccaneer. The ejector seat looks superb , as do the instrument panels , great work. It looks like the seams might be a bit tricky but im sure youll beat it. Keep the pics coming , cheers tony

 

[mobear]

doing a great job on this mate keep going

mobear

 

[Vajled]

so far really great...

keep it up

Roman

 

[colin m]

A little bit more done. Pre-shading, I nearly always have a go at it, if I loose it under the top coat, well never mind.

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The primer showed up a few areas that needed even more attention, but hopefully it's all covered now. Now for the first top coat. I'm going back to enamels for this one as I want it to match the other two Gulf war planes I built a while ago. I think there's just enough paint left for this one - we'll see.

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[yak face]

Certainly looks like a bucc to me colin! Are you doing it wheels up in flight or have you just temporarily fixed the u/c doors for painting? cheers tony

 

[dubster72]

Looking good so far Colin!

Patrick

 

[papa 695]

Looking very good Colin keep up the good work

 

[colin m]

Thanks all for having a look,

Tony, does this answer your question ?

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[T. van Vuuren]

Following with interest, I have the SAAF version of that Buck inmind.

Theuns

 

[James Q]

Looking very nice indeed, will look very good next to the jag and tornado.

 

[Vaughan]

Fantastic office Colin and PE parts really make a difference pre shading is looking good.

Vaughan

 

[mossiepilot]

Looking really nice Colin.

Reminds me of my youth, these were the operational aircraft then and the planes I was shown for aircraft recognition when I was an air cadet in the 70's. Happy days.

I'll be watching with interest.

Tony.

 

[colin m]

Thanks for having a look.

The PE was one of the eduard coloured self adhesive sets. A bit expensive but quite necessary with a kit like this so lacking in detail. The one I bought, according to Hannants, should of had some external PE as well - it didn't !

James, it was about a year ago I started this collection of three. I know other a/c were involved, but these three go together quite well.

This is one of the a/c I regret never having seen fly, and when I think they were only retired on the 31st March 1994, how did I miss them !!

Colin M..

 

[colin m]

So, moving on, it's painted. You know how sometimes your airbrush can be a pain, and sometimes, it just works really well. Well this was one of those really well occasions. It behaved itself so well all of a sudden two hours had passed. Two hours in a cold garage spraying a 1:72 model ! I think I was on the verge of frost bite !

These pictures (in early morning sunshine) were taken after a couple of coats of 'Klear' last night. All the panel lines were re-scribed ( as you can see, something I need a lot more practice at) and many more added as the OOB model is very lacking in any detail.

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Decals next, then more 'Klear' and then the wash. I would normally use 'Dark dirt' or just plain old black as a wash, but this time I'm tempted to try a more complimentary colour, like a sort of dark sand - ish type of thing. What do people think about this ? Although I still might use 'dark dirt' for access panels etc.

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